This invention relates to electronic musical instruments in which bar codes printed on a score are read out prior to performance and the production of musical sound is controlled according to musical sound information represented by the read-out bar codes.
The score with which to play the usual electronic keyboard musical instrument such as an electronic organ is as shown in FIG. 1. In this score, the melody score for which the instrument is to be performed with the right hand and accompaniment chord names such as E.sub.m, B.sub.7, A.sub.m for performance with the left hand are provided. The player operates the keys for the melody and accompaniment chord with the respective right and left hands while looking at the score in performance.
However, since the melody and accompaniment performed respectively with the right and left hands have different rhythms, it is very difficult for beginners to perform both the melody and accompaniment. Accordingly, various methods for producing accompaniment sounds of the electronic organ automatically or semiautomatically have been contemplated, and some of them have been used in practice. In some of the prior art instruments the accompaniment sound information is stored on a magnetic tape, magnetic card, etc. However, these recording media are expensive, and also their capacity of storage is small so that only a limited quantity of information can be stored. In addition, since the tapes, cards, etc. are used independently of the score, they are liable to be lost to make the performance impossible.
An object of the invention, accordingly, is to provide an electronic musical instrument, with which the production of the musical sound can be controlled by using musical sound information recorded on a stable recording medium, which is inexpensive and has comparatively large capacity.